Microfluidic assisted membrane distortion promotes lipid syntheses of microalgae

초록

Cellular membrane distortion invokes variations in cellular physiology. However, lack of an appropriate system to control the stress and facilitate molecular analyses has hampered progress of relevant studies. In this study, we realized cell biology that requires direct membrane distortion using a microfluidic system that finely manipulates compressive stress of cellular membrane. The device facilitated a first-time demonstration that direct membrane distortion invokes variations in deflagellation, cell cycle, cell size, and lipid metabolism of microalgae. Deflagellation was followed by Ca2+influxandsuccessiveupregulationofactinmRNA, and G1phaseand total cell cycle time were extended. The compressed cells started cell division as they were in smaller size but produced more daughter cells in smaller size. Mat3 mRNA, a cell size regulator in microalgae, was highly upregulated but apoptosis was not significant, even though upregulated Mat3 is general phenomenon during apoptosis. Additionally, membrane distortion played as an attractive inducer for biodiesel production as the strikingly increased lipid compensated for the loss of cell mass. Although this microfluidic system demonstrated here dealt with microalgal biology with biofuel applications, the membrane distortion and transcript-level analysis capability of this microfluidic system are useful in different organisms and should bring important information for analysis of cell biology.